Building your MARINES - CORRECTLY
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kam veitch
Super Freak
Its coming along very well. Thanks for sharing
Now back to our screen marines:
This is far from a finished project (the head needs to be repainted), but I believe I have a reasonable option for Vasquez using a seamless arms.
*Surgery is required. The arm transplant may require the breaking and regluing of the base/receiver body, internal dremeling to make sockets/pegs fit, and of course the doner body will largely go to waste. But it can be done!
The star of the show is the new DAM "SDU assault team leader" body with the v2.0 seamless "skinny" muscle arms. I pointed out this body as a target for use on my "Hicks" figure in this thread several months ago when the figure went up for Pre-order. It has been out some time now and I grabbed 2 of them (one for Hicks, one to experiment on for Vaz).
(Do NOT look for the original DAM SDU figure v1. Those arms are larger, paler, and crack with age. So far reports are pretty good on the v2.0 arms.
Also do NOT use the "Soldier Story" SDU figure arms. SS makes a seamless arm body on their SDU figure too, but it is very long and even skinnier. I grabbed one of those to use on Hudson and those arms are very lean and long. Vaz would look like a monkey with how long those arms were)
I am very happy with how it looks with the smartgun. (not so much without it in the 'ops battle' gear).
Relative to other figures she also appears very large, hardly accurate to the 5'3" Vaz actually stood. I also think she doesn't look very natural without the smart gun rig. But with the smart gun, I am quite pleased and I'm rolling with it.
This is far from a finished project (the head needs to be repainted), but I believe I have a reasonable option for Vasquez using a seamless arms.
*Surgery is required. The arm transplant may require the breaking and regluing of the base/receiver body, internal dremeling to make sockets/pegs fit, and of course the doner body will largely go to waste. But it can be done!
The star of the show is the new DAM "SDU assault team leader" body with the v2.0 seamless "skinny" muscle arms. I pointed out this body as a target for use on my "Hicks" figure in this thread several months ago when the figure went up for Pre-order. It has been out some time now and I grabbed 2 of them (one for Hicks, one to experiment on for Vaz).
(Do NOT look for the original DAM SDU figure v1. Those arms are larger, paler, and crack with age. So far reports are pretty good on the v2.0 arms.
Also do NOT use the "Soldier Story" SDU figure arms. SS makes a seamless arm body on their SDU figure too, but it is very long and even skinnier. I grabbed one of those to use on Hudson and those arms are very lean and long. Vaz would look like a monkey with how long those arms were)
I am very happy with how it looks with the smartgun. (not so much without it in the 'ops battle' gear).
Relative to other figures she also appears very large, hardly accurate to the 5'3" Vaz actually stood. I also think she doesn't look very natural without the smart gun rig. But with the smart gun, I am quite pleased and I'm rolling with it.
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slikkerias
Super Freak
Re: Customizing your Marines: TIPS
Good job! I think she looks great!
Good job! I think she looks great!
Angry Kal-El
Super Freak
Re: Customizing your Marines: TIPS
Looking good!
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Looking good!
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Damn, Vaz is lookin' great! That's an awesome recreation of that Smartgunner from the book, as well.
Bigbisont that's an awesome rendition of the concept smartgunner from the tech manual. I saw that Evilface had posted a pic of the stand decal a while back and was wondering who was making one - great job.
The DAM body looks really good. I go back and forth on whether I want seamless arms for Hicks but dammit your pics are making me lean towards the seamless arms again haha! How far can the arms bend on this new body type? Is it possible to get a 90 degree angle bend or more?
Love the fading on the Vasquez's BDUs so screen accurate, would you mind sharing how you did it? With the smart gun rig on your Vasquez looks perfectiy n proportion, not even Hudson would mistake her for a man.
The DAM body looks really good. I go back and forth on whether I want seamless arms for Hicks but dammit your pics are making me lean towards the seamless arms again haha! How far can the arms bend on this new body type? Is it possible to get a 90 degree angle bend or more?
Love the fading on the Vasquez's BDUs so screen accurate, would you mind sharing how you did it? With the smart gun rig on your Vasquez looks perfectiy n proportion, not even Hudson would mistake her for a man.
Thanks everyone.
Regarding the fading: I have done it 2 ways.
- First thing I did was mix a little white with light blue acrylic paint, dilute it with water and give the BDUs a soak. The blue counteracts the natural yellow-heavy colors a bit. You don't want a dark blue nor enough blue to risk it actually turning green, but something to tone down the yellow. Then it was just repeated washings of diluted white paint until you get the color you want.
- The other way (which I did on the set of BDUs with basic armed/headless figure), I simply spray painted them white. That is a heck of a lot faster. If you do that, make sure you tape over the "sulaco patch". The white paint doesn't actually make fabric white, but it will cover a solid item like the silk screened patch.
As for the range of motion on that seamless arm, it is actually really good. The core of the arm is actually stainless "bones". The 'skin' is actually very soft and kind of loose on the 'bones'. It can look a bit funky when fully closed and the elbow looks pretty horrible when perfectly straight, but the poses are easily made and held thanks to ratchet action in the elbow.
Regarding the fading: I have done it 2 ways.
- First thing I did was mix a little white with light blue acrylic paint, dilute it with water and give the BDUs a soak. The blue counteracts the natural yellow-heavy colors a bit. You don't want a dark blue nor enough blue to risk it actually turning green, but something to tone down the yellow. Then it was just repeated washings of diluted white paint until you get the color you want.
- The other way (which I did on the set of BDUs with basic armed/headless figure), I simply spray painted them white. That is a heck of a lot faster. If you do that, make sure you tape over the "sulaco patch". The white paint doesn't actually make fabric white, but it will cover a solid item like the silk screened patch.
As for the range of motion on that seamless arm, it is actually really good. The core of the arm is actually stainless "bones". The 'skin' is actually very soft and kind of loose on the 'bones'. It can look a bit funky when fully closed and the elbow looks pretty horrible when perfectly straight, but the poses are easily made and held thanks to ratchet action in the elbow.
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JokersWarPig
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I don't own any of the 1:6 marines anymore (I didn't see much point having the marines without Aliens of equal quality) but this thread has definitely helped me add some accuracy to the NECA version's I own, does that count?
Haha sure it does. The NECA ones are pretty good, though I want to replace the webbing and weapon straps with cloth at some point
Wrapped up my Gorman(s) last night. Not much changed from how it originally looked, but since the parts for him are pretty inexpensive, I decided to just do both looks (I'll have my 'ops battle' gorman dragging my non-seamless 'ops' Vaz on their own shelf).
With a modified star wars Racal headset (don't remember if this was Han's or Chewy's, but both required a fair amount of chopping/regluing and paint)
With a modified star wars Racal headset (don't remember if this was Han's or Chewy's, but both required a fair amount of chopping/regluing and paint)
Duuude Gorman looks awesome, great job on the headset too
Angry Kal-El
Super Freak
Re: Customizing your Marines: TIPS
The racal looks great!
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The racal looks great!
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asgardianboy
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I'm not sure where some of the stuff came from originally. I just picked a lot up loose. Best as I can remember:
-Cal tek dress blues marine head
-OD shirt from a 21st century air-cav figure (pants that came with it don't have belt loops, so I used those on the jacketed version)
-star wars racal (modified)
-Drake's OD cap (with dangly bits cut off)
-Patches from onesixthking
-Hot toys pulsmeter watch and VP70
-Hand made/scratch build grenade bandolier (w/hot toys grenades and painted tips)
Everything else was just 'loose' finds. Not sure what brand the boots, jacket, pants, white undershirts, and belt. Most required various levels of modifications though.
And thanks everyone
harvey2face
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Re: Customizing your Marines: TIPS
I recently bought a Hot Toys Hicks for a really good price. I'd always wanted a Colonial Marine in my collection. So I figured I'd ask here about finding an updated headsculpt. Can anyone point me in a direction, or should I wait for Hot Toys to get around to doing 2.0 marines? Thanks in advance.
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I recently bought a Hot Toys Hicks for a really good price. I'd always wanted a Colonial Marine in my collection. So I figured I'd ask here about finding an updated headsculpt. Can anyone point me in a direction, or should I wait for Hot Toys to get around to doing 2.0 marines? Thanks in advance.
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Don't wait around for a Hot Toys 2.0 ... Aliens is not high on the Hot Toys agenda at all.
I've copied a quote from Bigbisont below who did a lot of research into this a while back. I understand that the Snyderman sculpts and Rocco's sculpt are still available.
I've copied a quote from Bigbisont below who did a lot of research into this a while back. I understand that the Snyderman sculpts and Rocco's sculpt are still available.
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